A Pro Ron DeSantis super PAC on Monday launched an ad campaign slamming former president Donald Trump over his criticism last week of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ad highlights Trump’s recent comments that Netanyahu “let us down” during the U.S. assassination of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani, and was distributed through text messages in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the pro-DeSantis PAC Never Back Down has announced.
“As Israel fights terrorists, Trump attacks Israel,” says the ad, which also includes a clip of DeSantis telling supporters that now is “not the time to be attacking our ally.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is somebody that I’ve become friends with. He is managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face,” DeSantis says in the video. “We want them to be successful in this conflict. But you’re not going to find me throwing verbal grenades at the Israeli leadership.”
“It’s clear he’s angry at Netanyahu for recognizing Trump lost in 2020,” said a statement from Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis political action committee. “Trump puts himself first.”
Trump has had a personal feud with Netanyahu since 2020, when the Israeli prime minister congratulated Joe Biden for winning the election as Trump was challenging the outcome.
Trump also said during a campaign rally last week that Netanyahu wasn’t supportive of the U.S. assassination of Soleimani.
“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing, I will say that,” said Trump. “And then Bibi tried to take credit for it.”
After backlash for his recent comments, Trump said in a statement that “There was no better friend or ally of Israel than President Donald J. Trump.” Trump also posted “#IStandWithIsrael” and “#IStandWithBibi” on his social media platform Truth Social.